CHILDREN'S BOOKS

By Steven Heller

Published: February 10, 2002

CAPTAIN SLAUGHTERBOARD

DROPS ANCHOR

Written and illustrated

by Mervyn Peake.

Candlewick, $16.99.

(Ages 5 and up)

The children's books of the British author and artist Mervyn Peake read and look like more grotesque versions of Dr. Seuss, but this is not meant as an accusation or even a criticism. In fact, Peake (1911-68), who wrote eccentric poetry and plays, designed theater costumes and drew and painted in an artistic style known as Fantastic Realism, specialized in bringing dreams and nightmares flamboyantly and humorously to life. His graphic bent might best be described as a mélange of Edward Gorey, Ronald Searle and Maurice Sendak, with the addition of some Dr.-Seuss-like monsters -- yet he preceded them all, including Suess.

Though his work is not universally known in the United States, there is something quite familiar about his intricate gothic tableaus and absurd baroque beasts, because Peake indirectly inspired, through the masters he influenced, contemporary surreal linear illustration. He was also a master of meticulous detail, and boy oh boy is Peake obsessed with minute details of visage and dress.

Now, with the reissue of his zany pirate yarn ''Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor'' first published in 1939, Peake's bizarre characterizations and intricate renderings may very well influence another generation.

While that's fine for young artists, what about young kids? Well, Captain Slaughterboard and his disturbed crew -- Billy Bottle, Jonas Joints, Timothy Twitch, Peter Poop, and Charlie Choke -- capture a hirsute Yellow Creature who is ''as bright as butter'' and looks curiously like Bob Dylan with cocker-spaniel ears. They find him on a secret island inhabited by other mammalian oddities, like the Saggerdroop and the Squirmarins, and an exotic bird with an ornate tail, the Hunchabil, who looks nothing like anyone in show business and ''always got on the Yellow Creature's nerves.''

The rest is unrepentantly silly, and a summary will not do it justice. But even if the text did not hold up after 62 years, the drawings are so meticulously rendered and sublimely gross that they justify the book's reissue. Steven Heller